From August through December of 2011, my family and I traveled around the world on Semester at Sea's Fall 2011 Voyage. During that time, this blog was devoted to photographic endeavors in 14 countries over those 111 days, though we are now back to reality after an amazing adventure!

Monday, December 12, 2011

As if there weren’t enough excitement around the
ship already with everyone preparing to disembark, unfortunately one passenger
got an early ride to Key West, Florida via a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Airstation Clearwater, Florida. This is something that happens only on the rarest of occasions, as you might imagine; the
conditions were perfect, and the operation went smoothly. Crossing fingers for her…

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Although I don't have a single picture from the MV Explorer's transit of the Panama Canal on Wednesday, I've got something even better: 2,315 images strung into a time-lapse of nearly five hours of the eight hour process. I used a tripod-mounted Canon 7D and EF-S 10-22 lens, and shot at 10-second intervals.

It's clear that the Panama Canal was an amazing achievement for 1912, but it's hard to grasp how truly astounding an effort it was without actually seeing it. As our circumnavigation of the earth comes to a close several days from now, I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to do experience it.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

If any of you are sitting around the office bored out of your skull, we'll be transiting the Panama Canal tomorrow, and you can see the MV Explorer via webcam (see link below). Note that times are EASTERN.

Enjoy,

Jeff et al

----------------------------------------------

Sent:

Tue 12/6/2011 4:55 PM

Subject:

PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT - DECEMBER 7TH, 2011

Attachments:

Shipmates,

Following
please find the transit schedule for the Panama Canal tomorrow for your
reference. Also provided below is the Canal website on which you can
find information about the webcams located in some of locks.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

As of yesterday we are in the
Mountain Time Zone, despite being in the Pacific Ocean! Midday yesterday the MV
Explorer passed due south of our home in Golden, but we forgot to wave. Today
was a pretty big day for the boys, and few have ever had the opportunity to do
what they did: pilot a craft carrying 783 people on board! Back on November 20, SAS had the Fall '11 Voyage
Auction, benefiting ISE in the interest of supplying grants to students for
future voyages. One of the ‘items’ auctioned was a chance to steer the boat,
and Reade and Tate were the lucky recipients of the wonderful generosity of
Dean and Shelley Galloway, who won that particular auction. What a thrill for
them!The 2nd Officer
started with a briefing on the basics of the ship’s rather small steering
wheel, and at 1307 MST, Tate took the helm. They allowed him to steer 13 degrees
off course, and practice returning the ship to it’s original heading, showing
him how you had to ‘oversteer’ the vessel in the opposite direction for a few
seconds in order to stop turning, then returning the wheel to midships. Reade
then hopped on the controls and practiced a turn or two, but as you might
imagine, his deviations from course were much more subtle. :) At 1334, Reade
returned the helm, after having piloted the ship 7.7 nautical miles (between
the two of them). To give you an idea of where we
are right now, if we were driving eastbound on I-70, longitude-wise, Tate took
the controls just east of Kansas City Missouri, near Blue Springs.Such an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
for Reade and Tate, and a heartfelt thank you to Dean and Shelley for making it
possible!

Navigational instruments used both to monitor the MV Explorer's autopilot and drive the ship.